Sunday, October 30, 2005

Major Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

Major Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: "

Major Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

December 12, 1952
A partial meltdown of a reactor's uranium core at the Chalk River plant near Ottawa, Canada, resulted after the accidental removal of four control rods. Although millions of gallons of radioactive water poured into the reactor, there were no injuries.

October 1957
Fire destroyed the core of a plutonium-producing reactor at Britain's Windscale nuclear complex - since renamed Sellafield - sending clouds of radioactivity into the atmosphere. An official report said the leaked radiation could have caused dozens of cancer deaths in the vicinity of Liverpool.

Winter 1957-'58
A serious accident occurred during the winter of 1957-58 near the town of Kyshtym in the Urals. A Russian scientist who first reported the disaster estimated that hundreds died from radiation sickness.

January 3, 1961
Three technicians died at a U.S. plant in Idaho Falls in an accident at an experimental reactor.

July 4, 1961
The captain and seven crew members died when radiation spread through the Soviet Union's first nuclear-powered submarine. A pipe in the control system of one of the two reactors had ruptured.

October 5, 1966
The core of an experimental reactor near Detroit, Mich., melted partially when a sodium cooling system failed.

January 21, 1969
A coolant malfunction from an experimental underground reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, releases a large amount of radiation into a cave, which was then sealed.

December 7, 1975
At the Lubmin nuclear power complex on the Baltic coast in the former East Germany, a short-circuit caused by an electrician's mistake started a fire. Some news reports said there was almost a meltdown of the reactor core.

March 28, 1979
Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, America's worst nuclear accident occurred. A partial meltdown of one of the reactors forced the evacuation of the residents after radioactive gas escaped into the atmosphere.

February 11, 1981
Eight workers are contaminated when more than 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant fluid leaks into the contaminant building of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah 1 plant in Tennessee.

April 25, 1981
Officials said around 45 workers were exposed to radioactivity during repairs to a plant at Tsuruga, Japan.

April 26, 1986
The world's worst nuclear accident occurred after an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It released radiation over much of Europe. Thirty-one people died iin the immediate aftermath of the explosion. Hundreds of thousands of residents were moved from the area and a similar number are belived to have suffered from the effects of radiation exposure.

March 24, 1992
At the Sosnovy Bor station near St. Petersburg, Russia, radioactive iodine escaped into the atmosphere. A loss of pressure in a reactor channel was the source of the accident.

November 1992
In France's most serious nuclear accident, three workers were contaminated after entering a nuclear particle accelerator in Forbach without protective clothing. Executives were jailed in 1993 for failing to take proper safety measures.

November 1995
Japan's Monju prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor leaked two to three tons of sodium from the reactor's secondary cooling system.

March 1997
The state-run Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation reprocessing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, contaminated at least 35 workers with minor radiation after a fire and explosion occurred.

September 30, 1999
Another accident at the uranium processing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, plant exposed fifty-five workers to radiation. More than 300,000 people living near the plant were ordered to stay indoors. Workers had been mixing uranium with nitric acid to make nuclear fuel, but had used too much uranium and set off the accidental uncontrolled reaction.

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A-bomb victims stage rally in Hiroshima

A-bomb victims stage rally in Hiroshima: "- Victims of the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan joined a sit-in rally in Hiroshima on Saturday to protest plans to base a nuclear-powered American warship in the country, an activist said.

The protest came as talks got underway between top Japanese and American security officials on how to realign the U.S. military presence in Japan.

About 80 people - many of them victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - rallied against plans announced Friday by the U.S. Navy to deploy a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan, said Kazutoshi Kajikawa, who heads the Hiroshima Peace Movement Center.

'It makes me angry that America can even consider basing a nuclear carrier in Japan, the only country in the world to have suffered a nuclear attack,' Kajikawa said.

Basing the ship in Japan will also put the Japanese public at risk of being exposed to a radiation leak, he said.

The U.S. has said the carrier can be operated safely in Japanese waters. American Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer told reporters Friday that nuclear ships had made 1,200 visits to Japan in the past 40 years without harming the environment.

The U.S. Navy said it decided to replace the conventional aircraft carrier now based in Yokosuka, just outside Tokyo, with the nuclear-powered ship because it has greater capabilities."

Xinhua - English

Xinhua - English: "Deployment of US nuclear carrier in Japan criticized
www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-29 19:24:04
TOKYO, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- While Japanese government highly welcomed the first deployment of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan, saying it will ensure better security in the country, the public voice conveys strong protest against the plan,regarding it a further integration between Japanese and US military forces.
The move came after Washington announced Thursday that Japan and the United States had agreed to have the carrier to replace the conventional carrier Kitty Hawk at the naval base in Yokosuka,east Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2008.
Washington and Tokyo reiterated that nuclear-powered carriers are safe and that the stationing of such a vessel does not contradict Japan's nonnuclear principles because the principles refer to nuclear weapons, not to nuclear power generation.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said at a press conference that the deployment will "strengthen the Japan-US alliance and maintain the (US military) deterrence."
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura underscored the importance of the continued presence of the US Navy in and around Japan for the country's security and international peace.
Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono echoed the foreign minister, saying that "from the viewpoint of Japan's national security and the security of the Asian region, I think itis extremely significant to have a carrier with such high capabilities using Japan as its home port."
But, no matter how much efforts the officials exerted in seeking for public support and understanding on the issue, local governments, military experts and residents across Japan strongly criticized the deployment plan immediately after the announcement.
Yokosuka Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya was quoted as saying in a NHK TV interview that, "I'm sorry and disappointed. I'm feeling betrayed."
Kanagawa Governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa also criticized the Japanese government for agreeing with the United States on the matter, saying that "the move is extremely deplorable as it ignores local wishes."
Shoji Shimizu, one of the leaders of a Yokosuka group opposing the deployment of a nuclear-powered carrier, told reporters that "the Japanese and US governments had said they would respect local opinions. But then this sudden agreement has appeared."
Shimizu's group has submitted to the city government of Yokosuka a petition signed by about 300,000 people opposing the deployment of this type of carrier.
The United States has deployed three aircraft carriers in Yokosuka, including the Kitty Hawk, since 1973, all of which were conventionally powered. The Kitty Hawk has been stationed there since 1998.
In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where atomic bombs were dropped by the United States to force Japan to surrender during World War II,people voiced fear of possible accidents on a nuclear-powered carrier and concern that its deployment in Yokosuka could increasethe danger that Japan might be sucked into international disputes.
"If an accident ever occurs and causes damage to local people, it (Yokosuka) will be the third Japanese city exposed to nuclear radiation," said Hitoshi Hamasaki, a atomic bombing survivor.
The Hiroshima chapters of the Japan Council against A and H Bombs and the Japan Confederation of A- and H- Bomb Sufferers Organizations said they sent a letter to the US Embassy in Tokyo to demand that US President George W. Bush withdraw the deploymentplan.
Meanwhile, Japanese military experts also commented on the news.
Tetsuo Maeda, professor at Tokyo International University specializing in military research, said the deployment would make Yokosuka a leading US military base, giving the warship remarkablyhigh mobility, and symbolizing US power.
Maeda also noted that locals would have concerns about safety issues, and referred this type of vessel as "a mobile nuclear reactor".
Experts' opinion coincide with the public voice, regarding the deployment as a dangerous sign of the Japanese government's attempt to ignore the nonnuclear principles.
The nuclear-powered carrier in Japan is not allowed because it will bring danger to Japan and its people, according to the experts who urged the Japanese government to insist on nonnuclear principles, enacted in 1971, and to keep the country away from nuclear weapons."

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The Demon Hot Adam

Background radiation has NOT been increasing. In fact, it was slowly decreasing prior to 1945:
"I'll be philosophical. Until about 2 billion years ago, it was impossible to have any life on earth. That is, there was so much radiation on earth you couldn't have any life — fish or anything. Gradually, about 2 billion years ago, the amount of radiation on this planet reduced and made it possible for some form of life to begin — it started in the seas, I understand from what I've read. And that amount of radiation has been gradually decreasing because all radiation has a half-life, which means ultimately there will be no radiation. Now, when we go back to using nuclear power, we are creating something that nature tried to destroy to make life possible." — Admiral Hyman Rickover, known as the father of the Nuclear Navy (a man who was filled with regret by the end of his life).
-- Above quote was from: The Nuclear Fix, by Thijs De La Court, Deborah Pick, & Daniel Nordquist, WISE, page 1, 1982 (the reference is attributed to "the Godfather of Nuclear Power, 1982").

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

ritium, a radioactive isotope, found in water at the bottom of six sampling wells on the Indian Point nuclear plants

Newsday.com: NRC chair pledges greater oversight of nuclear plant: "Entergy and the NRC said last week that low levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope, have been found in water at the bottom of six sampling wells on the Indian Point property in Buchanan, N.Y.

The tritium may be the result of a leak from Indian Point 2's spent fuel pool, first detected in August.

In one of the wells, the amount of tritium found was slightly above the federal standard permitted for drinking water. However, none of the wells, which are 20 to 30 feet deep, are used for drinking water or for anything other than sampling groundwater.

The water is believed to have leaked from a 40-foot-deep pool, which holds the highly radioactive fuel assemblies that have been used in the nuclear reactor."

Monday, October 24, 2005

China to shut borders if bird flu mutates

: "China to shut borders if bird flu mutates
Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:07 PM BST
By Susan Fenton
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China will close its borders if it finds a single case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu there, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Saturday, while a defiant Taiwan said it would copy a patented antiviral drug.
Saving lives would be Beijing's top priority in efforts to contain a possible outbreak of bird flu, even if it meant slowing the economy, Huang Jiefu, a vice-minister of health, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.
The World Bank said while prevention measures would cost a lot, the economic damage from a pandemic would be far worse.
Huang told health officials from China, Hong Kong and Macau on Friday that any suspected human case would be quarantined.
The World Health Organization has said the deadly H5N1 strain is endemic in poultry in China and across much of Asia, and it may only be a matter of time before it develops the ability to pass easily from human to human.
China's sheer size and its attempts to conceal the SARS epidemic in 2003 have prompted fears among some experts that it has had more bird flu cases than officially recorded.
Since breaking out in late 2003 in South Korea, the deadly H5N1 strain of influenza has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries and reached as far west as European Russia, Turkey and Romania, tracking the paths of migratory birds.
Russian authorities said they had uncovered more cases of bird flu in the Urals and were investigating a suspected outbreak in the Altai region close to the Kazakh border.
On Friday, new cases were reported in Britain, Romania and Croatia, but there was no immediate indication it was H5N1.
In Britain, the Agriculture Ministry said a parrot that died in quarantine had contracted bird flu. The parrot had been imported from Surinam and held with other birds from Taiwan.
In Croatia, authorities prepared to cull all poultry and wild birds around a pond where the country's first bird flu case -- the H5 virus in wild swans found dead -- was confirmed.
Samples were sent to Britain to determine if it was H5N1 which has been found in Romania, which shares the Danube waterway with Croatia, and in Turkey.
Bosnia banned the import of poultry from neighboring Croatia and also forbade the transport of wild fowl and poultry and the slaughter and sale of poultry in outdoor markets.
TAIWAN TALKS TOUGH
Amid growing fears about the spread of the disease, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche AG has come under pressure to pump up output of its antiviral avian flu drug Tamiflu.
The company agreed on Thursday to meet four generic drug makers with a view to possible tie-ups.
But an impatient Taiwan said -- patent or not -- it was ready to start making its own version of Tamiflu.
"We have tried our best to negotiate with Roche. It means we have shown our goodwill to Roche and we appreciate their patent. But to protect our people is the utmost important thing," Su Ih-jen, head of the clinical division at the National Health Research Institute, told Reuters.
The research institute showed media a generic version of Tamiflu produced by its laboratories, which it said was 99 percent similar to Roche's drug.
Taiwan has so far been spared a serious outbreak of H5N1 but authorities found rare birds infected with the strain in a container smuggled from China on Thursday, the island's first case since late 2003.
Experts say Tamiflu, generically known as oseltamivir, cannot be regarded as a "cure-all" for H5N1 as it must be administered in the early stages of infection -- and will in some cases not work due to anti-viral resistance.
The World Health Organisation's director of epidemic and pandemic alert, Mike Ryan, told the Financial Times on Saturday it would cost billions of dollars to prepare the world fully for a potential pandemic with large-scale production of vaccines and other measures.
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz told world parliamentarians in Finland that prevention would still be far cheaper than cure.
He said SARS, despite being contained relatively early, had cost east Asian countries two or three percent of their gross domestic product for a quarter.
"Stop and think what a larger epidemic that spreads death and disease around the world would do in damage to commerce and the international economy," he said.
"The cost of prevention, while it may be expensive, would be much cheaper than the cost of dealing with an outbreak."
The Asian Development Bank said it hoped to provide $58 million to help fight the spread of bird flu -- half of it to combat the virus in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and the rest to help international technical agencies.
India said it had started testing migratory birds for avian flu in the east. No cases have yet surfaced in the country."

WAR,� PEACE� AND� ARMS� CONTROL� IN� THE� BRONZE� AGE

::PeaceJournalism.com - The Peace Media Research Center's e-magazine::: " Issue 12 - October, 2005
By: Stephen Edward Seadler
Posted on: 10/22/2005
Stephen Edward Seadler is a member of:American Physical Society, New York Academy of Sciences, Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers, Foreign Policy Association, Academy of Political Science, West Point Society of New Jersey, Union of Concerned Scientists, American Physical Society Forum On Physics & Society, Naval Intelligence Professionals, Wisdom Hall of Fame.and is listed in: Marquis Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Science & Engineering, Who's Who in Finance & Business Who's Who in American Education. Others in the UK, Europe & Asia.
WAR,� PEACE� AND� ARMS� CONTROL� IN� THE� BRONZE� AGE
by Stephen Edward Seadler

Once upon a planet billions of years after its formation in one of the galaxies among the billions of galaxies in a universe so huge that the distance from it to the farthest known galaxy is several billion parsecs, or 40 billion trillion miles -- there arose a species of bipedal primates that came to call itself homo sapiens sapiens and its people �humans.�� Also �hominids,� after the Family in which the species is included, Hominidae, which also includes the great apes:� orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees.� In fact, human genes are 99% the same as those of chimpanzees.� We will nevertheless continue the convenient old practice of calling only humans hominids, in order to emphasize their evolutionary origins and nature.��
In the course of time, as simplicity fed on ambient elements under local heat, pressure, bombardment by cosmic radiation, and the workings of chemistry and probability over millions of years, there evolved higher complexities and a primordial 'soup' in which the first creatures grew. In the further course of millions of years there evolved the ape Ramapithicus, some ten million years later the small-brained, large-toothed bipedal hominid Australopithicus, and later on, some 1.5 to 2 million years ago, Homo habilis, an upright East African hominid having some advanced humanlike characteristics, comprising an early form of Homo, the genus of bipedal primates that includes humans, followed by Homo erectus, Homo sapiens neanderhalensis (Neanderthal Man), and finally, Homo sapiens sapiens (Cro-Magnon Man) during the upper Paleolithic Epoch, the prototype of modern humans, with the first fully human version of hominids appearing about 50,000 years ago.� The hominids came to call their planet Earth, and through their sciences learned that it is 4.3 billion years old.
As their sciences advanced they came to discover the instant of origin of their universe and the evolution of its space, matter and time, and to map its present structure, including their own galaxy and their solar system in that galaxy and their planet Earth in that system.� They discovered the origin and evolution of their Cosmos by means of their extraordinary multi-science science of Physical Cosmology.� An illuminating account is provided in Part V, The Ascent of Intellect, in this writer�s book Principia Ideologica: A Treatise on Combatting Human Malignance, which can be perused on amazon.com via direct link� http://softpower.us� He had the privilege of studying quantum mechanics, relativity and cosmology under the late great George Gamow, main co-author of �Big Bang� cosmology.� Actually, there was no bang at the origin: there was no space or air yet.� It was just a name created by British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle to denigrate Gamow�s theory, but Gamow whimsically adopted it.
�The most detailed and precise map yet produced of the universe just after its birth confirms the Big Bang theory in triumphant detail and opens new chapters in the early history of the cosmos, astronomers said yesterday [ 11 Feb 2003]�the universe is 13.7 billion years old, plus or minus one percent�The map, compiled by a satellite called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe�would serve as the basis for studying the universe for the rest of the decade�The results were announced at a news conference at NASA headquarters in Washington yesterday, and posted online at map.gsfc.nasa.gov/.�� -- New York Times, 12 Feb. 03, p.A1.
During the course of terrestrial evolution, the brain (encephalon) of animal species also evolved.� For instance, the increase in size of the cerebellum in the course of evolution generally paralleled the enlargement of the cerebral cortex in higher mammals, a process called encephalization.� The cerebellar hemispheres regulate higher cerebral processes that plan complex movements and participate in cognition and thinking.� Humans enjoy unique neural capacities, but much of human neuroarchitecture is shared with ancient species; much of the basic systems are similar to those of the most basic vertebrates.� For instance, human neuroarchitecture includes elements from aquatic vertebrates, including the shark.� As evolutionary encephalization progressed, new higher structures and functions evolved on top of the previous lower and ferocious ones.� Eventually the higher functions manifested what the hominids call Reason.�
That recalls the words of Mephistopheles to the Lord in Goethe�s Faust:� �Of suns and worlds I�ve nothing to be quoted, / How men torment themselves is all I�ve noted. / The little god o� the world sticks to the same old way, / And is as whimsical as on Creation�s Day./ Life somewhat better might content him, / But for the gleam of heavenly light that thou hast lent him. / He calls it Reason -- thence his powers increased / To be far beastlier than any beast.�� By the combination of evolutionary animal neurophysiology and abuse of Reason, the hominids became the most vicious, deadly and destructive species on the planet.
The hominids engaged in so much warfare and their weapons became so deadly that starting early in their 20th century -- counting from the birth of a Hebrew rabbi named Yeshua, which translated into the later English language as Jesus, whom everyone considered to be a prophet and many considered to be the messiah, from the Hebrew word mashiah, meaning anointed, or messiah, which translated into English as �Christ� -- many nations began to create and sign treaties to halt or at least control the arms races and wars.
Those peace, security, non-armament, arms reduction, and arms control instruments included:� the Covenant of the League of Nations (1919), the League Commission on Armies Draft Treaty (1925), the Pact of Locarno (1925), the Washington Naval Conference (1927), the Geneva and London Conference Agreement (1927, 1930), the Geneva Protocol (1928), the Kellog-Briand Pact (1928), the Charter of the United Nations and its Statute of the International Court of Justice (1945), the Antarctic Treaty (1961), the Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963), the Outer Space Treaty (1967), the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1970), the Treaty for the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (1971), the �Accidents Measures� Agreement (1971), the Seabed Arms Control Treaty (1972), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), the ABM Treaty (1972, the SALT I Interim Agreement (1972), the ABM Protocol (1973), the Threshold Test Ban and Protocol (1973), the Prevention of Nuclear War Agreement (1973), the ABM Protocol (1974), the Treaty and Protocol on Underground Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (1976), the Environmental Modification Ban (1977), and so on and on an on, arriving now at the Era of Catastrophic Terrorism by transnational groups using Weapons of Mass Death and Destruction, compounded by nations, especially North Korea, Iran, India, Pakistan and the United States, still nuclear-bombs racing.
In the Conclusion of this writer�s Statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during its Hearings on the SALT II Treaty, he stated, �The need for introduction of Ideological Arms Control in arms control in general and the SALT [Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty] process in particular is clear and urgent�[by doing so] we will have begun to extend universally that Novus Ordo Seclorum [New Order of the Age] envisioned in our Great Seal, wherein Mankind will have learned to recognize and disdain the dogmatic fallacies of tyrannical malevolence, and to value more noble and glorious purposes.�� Hearings Before The Committee On Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Ninety-Sixth Congress, Part 4, September 1979, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979, pp 504-509.
Despite the international instruments listed above and many more, the 20th century produced three World Wars (The Third a.k.a the incredible misnomer of �Cold War.�� Were the Korean, Vietnam, Angola, etc., wars �cold�?) -- four holocausts -- the Armenian, Ukrainian, European (Jewish and Other), and Rwandan.� All were products of ideologies:� Islamism, Christianism, Social-Darwinism, Fascism, Naziism, Shinto-Tanakaism [my term], and Marxism-Leninism and its variants.� All of those except Shinto-Tanakaism were products of Abrahamic Civilization, which comprises the three religions that trace their roots back to the patriarch Abraham (considered by many scholars to have been only a mythical culture hero), namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam.� In overview, Abrahamic Civilization in the 20th Century was an Ideologically Determined Catastrophe -- the most savage century in history.
Consider its theological history:� Judaism evolved during the Bronze Age out of pagan mythologies tracing back to ancient Sumer, resulting in an extremely bloody, savage literature we call the Old Testament.� A little over two millennia ago a small sect within Judaism led by Yeshua and his eleven Jewish and one non-Jewish (Luke) disciples created a new religion out of the old one that came to be called Christianity, and wrote a sequel to the Old Testament we call the New Testament, fundamentally just as bloody as the Old.� Of the four Gospel writers three were Jewish (only Luke was not). Some six hundred plus years later an illiterate merchant of the Arabic Koreish tribe named Muhammad, working with his Jewish friends and colleagues and scribes to whom he dictated, created a third, and what he declared to be the last and correct, testament, called the Qur�an, or Koran, in large part out of Judaism and some misunderstood Christianity.� Result: another savagely bloody �holy� book.� These three works, rooted in the Bronze Age, comprise the foundations of Abrahamic Civilization today.
In the chapter �The Wish For War� in his classic book Ends And Means (1937), British author Aldous Huxley wrote, �Christianity�was able to justify the bloodthirsty tendencies of its adherents by an appeal to the savage Bronze Age literature of the Old Testament.�� In 1992, Maryland Public Television produced a series of global civilizations studies called LEGACY, written and narrated by British historian Michael Wood, in which he summarized the savagery in our �civilization� in cultural terms as follows:
�WE WESTERNERS OF THE LATE 20TH CENTURY -- FOR ALL OUR MODERNITY -- ARE STILL A BRONZE AGE PEOPLE.��
It is fruitless to discuss War and Peace seriously without definitions of those two terms, which are standardly absent from all works about them.� The best operative definition was given by Thomas Hobbes in his 17th Century classic Leviathan:
For W A R R E consisteth not in Battel only, or in the act of fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to contend by Battel is sufficiently known; and there the notion of Time, is to be considered in the nature of Warre, as it is in the Nature of Weather.� For as the nature of Foule weather, lyeth not in a Showre or two of rain, but in an inclination thereto of many days together:� So the nature of Warre consisteth not in actual fighting; but in a known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary.� All other time is P E A C E
The �inclination� and �disposition� to war are crystallized and distributed in a war�s ideological foundations, which rationalize, legitimate, motivate and unify �the Will to contend by Battel.�� Ideological armaments are as essential as physical armaments in preparation for and conduct of war.� Without such understanding, international peace and security agreements have been doomed to repeated failure.� Especially arms control, which, seeking to control preparations for war without essential understanding of the nature of War and Peace, is fundamentally flawed and has been an historically failed enterprise.� It needs to be reconceived and redefined, and this is developed in PRINCIPIA IDEOLOGICA, pages 475 to 478.
With only the foregoing brief sketch it should be clear that international security instruments in general and arms control in particular cannot meaningfully contribute to generating Peace in Abrahamic Civilization during its continuing Bronze Age.� Therefore, high priority must be assigned to ending the Bronze Age while treating secular ideologies of war and oppression.� That requires introducing the Ideologic (EYE dee oh LOW jic) dimension (ID) into national and international affairs.� These matters are developed further in the brief book ENDING THE BRONZE AGE -- which the reader can peruse via the direct link� http://bronze-age.us . Those compact 72 pages summarize the PRINCIPIA, apply it to a case, and thereby provide the essential principles and methods for obtaining genuine PEACE -- for the first time in hominid history.� Essential reading in a state of Bronze Age Modernity during the Era of Catastrophic Terrorism.
The �logics� of Ideologics comes from �Logos,� as in John 1.1 of the New Testament, �In the beginning was the Word.�� In the original Greek �Word� was �Logos� -- meaning Idea and the manifestation of Idea.
The primary threat we face in that Era is from nuclear bombs -- not just radiological, or �dirty bombs� -- but most especially the kind that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki.� Some designs are easily made, others easily stolen or bought, and smuggled into or dropped onto American cities and ports and critical telecommunications, industrial, financial, energy, and defense facilities and centers.� A one-page outline of the problem, and of the principles and practices for its solution, is provided by the online paper NUCLEAR THREAT AND PREVENTION, which includes links to further material.� It can be read and printed out at terror2.com:� http://terror2.com� .
That paper makes clear that we are fighting a war only against terror -- not against terrorism -- which involves ideology.� Bin Laden made this clear in a taped speech broadcast on 3 November 2001 by the Al Jazeera Arab satellite channel based in Qatar:� �This is a matter of religion and creed.� It is not what Bush and Blair maintain, that it is a war against terrorism.� There is no way to forget the hostility between us and the infidels.� It is ideological.�
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has come to realize that full well.� Speaking before a Labour Party policy forum in London on 6 July 2005 he declared, �What we are confronting here is an evil ideology�a religious ideology, a strain within the worldwide religion of Islam�It is a global struggle . And it is a battle of ideas and hearts and minds,� both within Islam and outside it.� This is the battle we must win.�
The fundamental resource for fighting that battle, which provides the essential perspectives, principles and weapons, is the compact 81-page tract TERROR� WAR AND PEACE: With De-Sanctification of Jihad.� It waits in the wings unadvertised on amazon.com, waiting for the situation to get desperate enough for the infidel world to catch up with it.� This is not Islamophobia; it is Islamorealism.� It works directly from the Qur�an itself, and from classical and modern Koranic scholarship.� It can be perused on amazon.com via the direct link terror1.com: http://terror1.com� It will be a both-eyes opener to nearly all readers.
It would be well to note further that that is not bigotry against people and their religion, but is, rather, a matter of defensive war-fighting, requiring in accordance with Ideologic Defense, attacking and nullifying an adversary�s ideology.� One of this writer�s closest associates on major matters is by his choice, based on superior merit, a Pakistani Muslim.
As you will see, the nature of the problem and its resolution�s principles and operations cannot be left to government.� They must be implemented by the private sector: by NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and you.� You can begin by passing the word -- of this message -- and the web address that got you here.
For, this is about far more than how to win World War IV.� It is about how to prevent as well as fight wars in general, in the tradition of Sun Tzu�s 500 B.C. classic THE ART OF WAR:� �For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill.� To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.�
We must go beyond merely putting out fires, at great cost in lives and treasure,
to putting out the incendiary ideologies that light them
As called for by the famous phrase in the Charter of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO):� �Since Wars Begin In The Minds Of Men It Is In The Minds Of Men That The Defenses Of Peace Must Be Constructed.�
As called for by Hobbes� definition of Warre.� And by John 1.1�s focus on Logos.�
This is also about combatting racism, religionism, ethnicism and all manner of malignant ideologies of oppression.� And about building genuine Peace -- for the first time in hominid history.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. -- Proverbs 29.18
� Copyright 2005 by Stephen Edward Seadler"

federal oversight of depleted uranium disposal is alarmingly lenient

Print Article: "Article Last Updated: 10/22/2005 02:49 AM
NRC reconsiders dangers of depleted uranium
The agency is told that the material is too dangerous for its classification
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Is it safe to dispose of depleted uranium in places like Envirocare of Utah, where only low-level radioactive waste is allowed?
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's answer used to be an automatic "yes." But the federal agency this week appeared to stop taking it for granted that all depleted uranium deserves to be treated as Class A, the lowest category of low-level radioactive waste and the most hazardous type Envirocare is allowed to dispose of at its Tooele County landfill.
In a case involving a uranium enrichment plant proposed for New Mexico that has talked to Envirocare about taking its waste called depleted uranium, the federal panel opened the door Wednesday for two anti-nuclear groups to make the case that federal oversight of depleted uranium disposal is alarmingly lenient.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Public Citizen say depleted uranium is 40 times more radioactive than typical Class A waste, four times more hazardous to people than certain types of plutonium and can only be disposed of safely deep underground. The groups say federal regulators should reject the notion that landfills like Envirocare are constructed well enough to secure the highly radioactive waste for thousands of years.
The case has long-term implications for Utah and Envirocare, which has accepted depleted uranium for more than a decade under its state license.
One of three U.S. disposal sites licensed for Class A waste, Envirocare has a good chance of landing the disposal contract for waste from the New Mexico plant, which is proposed by a U.S. and European consortium of nuclear companies called Louisiana Energy Services. The plant would generate 1 million 55-gallon drums of depleted uranium over 30 years.
The U.S. Energy Department also appears to favor Envirocare as the site for disposal of waste from three old enrichment plants (in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee) where depleted uranium has been piling up for decades.
Utah is affected because the state would have to reexamine its regulations. State regulations parallel the federal ones, and a change in how the federal government treats depleted uranium from enrichment plants might mean the state would not be able to allow any depleted uranium from enrichment plants.
Last winter, lawmakers banned waste hotter than Class A from coming into the state. Momentum grew for the ban after the U.S. Congress two years ago changed the labeling of highly contaminated radioactive waste to render it suitable for Envirocare, or one of two other commercial sites like it.
If the science has changed, or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is rethinking its depleted uranium regulations, then they need to inform the state, said John Hultquist, who has oversight responsibility for Envirocare at the Utah Division of Radiation Control.
"Based on what we've done, that's how we interpret the rules, that it [depleted uranium] is Class A waste" and Envirocare can safely take it, he said.
Envirocare spokesman Mark Walker noted that the company had to perform an in-depth safety review during its licensing more than a decade ago.
"We had to demonstrate that we could contain it safely," he said.
The environmental groups adamantly disagree. They accuse the commission staff and Louisiana Energy Services of ignoring clear evidence that shows the dangers of the leftovers from uranium enrichment.
"The NRC staff is trying to pull a fast one on the public by saying, 'Don't worry, that's low-level Class A waste,' " said Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear waste expert for the environmental groups. "Envirocare has been saying 'We're OK with this.' The [state] regulators are saying, 'We're OK with this,' "
High radioactivity is one sign of how dangerous depleted uranium is, says Makhijani. Class A waste generally allows each gram of waste to have 10 nanocuries of radioactivity, a standard measure of radiation concentration. But depleted uranium from enrichment plants generally has around 350 nanocuries per gram - 35 times more than typical Class A.
Another measure is dose consequences, or what it would mean if workers, intruders and nearby residents were exposed to the waste. Louisiana Energy Services and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff have based their dose estimates on calculations made by the U.S. Energy Department, which says that depleted uranium is well under the 25 millirem considered safe.
Makhijani says none of them has done the homework and the dose would be many times higher.
And he noted that depleted uranium gets even more radioactive over time, because the metals produced when it decays have a more destructive radioactive energy than uranium.
He applauded the commission's acknowledgement in its Wednesday ruling that, for "the uranium enrichment waste stream . . . no analysis was done."
Makhijani said his group alone has done the hazard-based analysis that is necessary to understand how bad the enrichment plant waste would be. He said Louisiana Energy Services should expect to spend at least $2.4 billion for deep burial, rather than a shallow landfill like Envirocare.
"It's a very good thing, what the NRC is doing, and they should be applauded for that," he said.
The commission did not return a call Friday seeking comment on the ruling.
Meanwhile, Louisiana Energy Services downplayed the hazard associated from the waste. Rod Kirch, the vice president of licensing, said the environmental groups have exaggerated the risks.
"This material is pretty benign," he said. "It has been handled for 50 years without trouble . . . it is Class A waste."
For Louisiana Energy Services the least expensive solution for the depleted uranium waste - at a cost of about $700 million - would be a proposed landfill just across the border from its Eunice, N.M., plant in Texas. But the state of Texas has yet to license that site.
Louisiana Energy Services abandoned plans to locate its plant in Louisiana after an outcry that it would put a too-heavy burden on the surrounding community, which has a large population of minorities.
A hearing is set for Monday in Washington, D.C., for the environmental groups, the company and the Louisiana Energy Services staff to make oral arguments on the environmental safety and the costs of the waste plan.
Envirocare opponents Jason Groenewold and Claire Geddes criticized a proposal, approved already by state regulators, to double the size of Envirocare's waste site - especially in light of the large quantity of LES's waste.
"The last thing Utah should do," they said, "is double the size of Envirocare's nuclear waste landfill when the nation is looking for a place to dump hundreds of thousands of tons of unwanted depleted uranium."
fahys@sltrib.com"

Sunday, October 23, 2005

X-Rays May Raise Cancer Risk

FOXNews.com - X-Rays May Raise Cancer Risk: "X-Rays May Raise Cancer Risk

Thursday, June 30, 2005

By Miranda Hitti

No dose of low-level radiation is too small to rule out a "small" increase in cancer risk for humans, say researchers.

They reviewed data on the topic for the National Research Council. The council is part of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The report updates information from the 1990 findings, which is based mostly on survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb attacks against Japan.

"The scientific research base shows that there is no threshold of exposure below which levels of ionizing radiation can be demonstrated to be harmless or beneficial," says Richard Monson, MD, ScD, in an NAS news release.

Monson chaired the committee that wrote the report. He is also associate dean for health education and an epidemiology professor at Harvard School of Public Health.

Take Web MD's Quiz: How Much Do You Know about Cancer?

'Very Small' Risk at Low Doses

"The health risks -- particularly the development of solid cancers in organs -- rise proportionally with exposure," says Monson.

"At low doses of radiation, the risk of inducing solid cancers is very small. As the overall lifetime exposure increases, so does the risk," says Monson.

The researchers define low-dose radiation as those ranging from close to zero to about 100 millisieverts. The radiation dose from one chest X-ray is about 0.1 millisieverts. A whole-body CT scan delivers about 10 millisieverts, say the researchers.

Researchers' Estimate

The report's predictions are based on information from survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. It estimates that about one in 100 people in the U.S. would be expected to develop solid cancer or leukemia from a dose of 100 millisieverts, say the researchers.

For perspective, they say 42 in 100 people would be expected to develop cancer from other causes.

Some Sources Are Natural

Low-level radiation is used in the medical field for X-rays and in nuclear medicine to produce some of the scanned images of the body, such as bone, lung, and thyroid scans. It is also found in the ground and the universe.

About 82 percent of human exposure to radiation comes from natural sources -- soil, water, and some meats. Basic activities -- such as eating, drinking, and breathing -- are most people's primary sources, say the researchers.

People get exposed to about 3 millisieverts of natural "background" radiation a year, they say.

The other 18 percent comes from man-made sources, they note. A smaller percentage comes from consumer products such as tobacco, t
ap water, building materials, occupational exposure, fallout, and the use of nuclear fuel, say the researchers.

More Work Needed

More studies are needed to explore low doses of radiation and other health problems, including heart disease, say the researchers.

"Radiation exposure has been demonstrated to increase the risk of diseases other than cancer, particularly [heart] disease, in persons exposed to high therapeutic doses and also in atomic-bomb survivors exposed to more modest doses," they say.

"However, there is no direct evidence of increased risk of noncancer diseases at low doses, and data are inadequate to quantify this risk if it exists," they write.

Protection From X-ray and Gamma Radiation

Exposure to X-rays is almost entirely from dental and medical X-rays, including mammograms. Simple MRI scanning does not expose a person to X-rays; it uses radio waves and a strong magnetic field to produce body images.

One way to protect yourself from excessive radiation from X-rays is to make sure the technician performing the procedure has the proper qualifications, says the Environmental Protection Agency. Simply ask questions.

You might inquire about the necessity of having an X-ray or receive assurance the X-ray machine has been inspected recently and that it is properly calibrated.

You should be aware of steps taken to prevent exposures to other parts of your body -- for example, through the use of a lead apron.


By Miranda Hitti, reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

SOURCES: The National Academies Report in Brief, "BEIR VII: Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation," June 2005. News release, National Academy of Sciences. Environmental Protection Agency."

Zemiva, an experimental radioactive compound reveals metabolic disturbances in the heart

Zemiva, an experimental radioactive compound reveals metabolic disturbances in the heart: "Zemiva, an experimental radioactive compound reveals metabolic disturbances in the heart

Researchers, led by Vasken Dilsizian at the University of Maryland Medical Center, has demonstrated for the first time that an experimental radioactive compound can show images of heart damage up to 30 hours after a brief interruption of blood flow and oxygen.

The discovery may help physicians determine whether a patient's chest pain, which may have subsided hours earlier, is related to heart disease or something else, such as indigestion.

' This probe provides a direct connection to the cause of the chest pain without requiring a treadmill stress test or use of a drug that produces stress to assess heart function,' says Dilsizian.

Nuclear medicine combines computers, detectors and radioactive substances called radioisotopes to produce images of blood flow and biochemical functions in the heart and other organs.
The radioactive tracer evaluated for this study, known by the brand name Zemiva, links a fatty acid to a radioisotope which is injected in the patient.
The researchers used a technique called SPECT ( Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography ) to evaluate the tracer in this study.

The heart normally uses fatty acid as its primary fuel source for energy.
Decreased blood flow to the heart, caused either by narrowed or clogged arteries or increased demand on the heart during strenuous exercise, sets off a metabolic disturbance that slows down or halts the way fatty acid is normally utilized.
The condition is called myocardial ischemia.
The disturbance causes the heart to switch from fatty acid as its primary fuel to glucose.
The new tracer test keys in on this metabolic disturbance and seemingly remembers the imprint of an episode of reduced blood flow long after the episode, a process that is called ' ischemic memory.'Zemiva, an experimental radioactive compound reveals metabolic disturbances in the heart
Researchers, led by Vasken Dilsizian at the University of Maryland Medical Center, has demonstrated for the first time that an experimental radioactive compound can show images of heart damage up to 30 hours after a brief interruption of blood flow and oxygen.
The discovery may help physicians determine whether a patient's chest pain, which may have subsided hours earlier, is related to heart disease or something else, such as indigestion.
" This probe provides a direct connection to the cause of the chest pain without requiring a treadmill stress test or use of a drug that produces stress to assess heart function," says Dilsizian.
Nuclear medicine combines computers, detectors and radioactive substances called radioisotopes to produce images of blood flow and biochemical functions in the heart and other organs.
The radioactive tracer evaluated for this study, known by the brand name Zemiva, links a fatty acid to a radioisotope which is injected in the patient.
The researchers used a technique called SPECT ( Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography ) to evaluate the tracer in this study.
The heart normally uses fatty acid as its primary fuel source for energy.
Decreased blood flow to the heart, caused either by narrowed or clogged arteries or increased demand on the heart during strenuous exercise, sets off a metabolic disturbance that slows down or halts the way fatty acid is normally utilized.
The condition is called myocardial ischemia.
The disturbance causes the heart to switch from fatty acid as its primary fuel to glucose.
The new tracer test keys in on this metabolic disturbance and seemingly remembers the imprint of an episode of reduced blood flow long after the episode, a process that is called " ischemic memory." According to Dilsizian, " When you image the heart, you see lack of or reduced fatty acid metabolism."
Thirty-two patients from four centers were enrolled in the study.
To determine the accuracy of images acquired by Zemiva, the researchers first identified patients who had evidence of myocardial ischemia on a treadmill using a standard tracer called thalium to produce SPECT images.
Later, SPECT images of the same patients were taken with the new tracer ( Zemiva ) injected at rest ( without repeating the treadmill exercise ), but no more that 30 hours after the exercise thalium test.
The exercise-induced thalium-based images were compared with the rest-injected Zimeva images.
The comparison showed the two tracers pointed to the same abnormality in the heart in over 90 percent of the cases.
This suggests that disturbances in fatty acid metabolism can persist up to 30 hours after an ischemic episode, which can be imaged with the new tracer Zemiva.
Source: University of Maryland Medical Center, 2005
XagenaMedicine2005
'"

Thursday, October 20, 2005

The Ledger Independent - Maysville, Kentucky - A tractor-trailer collided with a pickup truck, radioactive tube on the tractor-trailer

The Ledger Independent - Maysville, Kentucky: "Crash closes Grayson spur Wednesday

Wednesday, October 19, 2005 8:49 PM EDT Print this story | Email this story
VANCEBURG (LI) -- A tractor-trailer collided with a pickup truck Wednesday, closing down the Grayson spur of the AA Highway from Kentucky 1149 to Kentucky 9 for an extended period of time, according to the Lewis County Sheriff's Office.

At press time, the extent of possible injuries to either driver had not yet been reported.

A radioactive tube on the tractor-trailer was not damaged, police said.
"

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The Seoul Times - Nagasaki A-bomb Report Found 60 Years Later - Controversial Report Banned by US Military Censors

The Seoul Times" LOS ANGELES, June 17, 2005 — A controversial report and photos a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist produced on the aftermath of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki have been unearthed almost 60 years after U.S. military censors forbade their publication, a Japanese daily Mainichi has reported.
The late George Weller was the first foreign reporter to reach Nagasaki after it was subjected to an atomic attack on Aug. 9, 1945, but Occupation censors refused to allow the publication of his stories and photos that told of conditions in the city and the pain suffered by those with radiation sickness.
The U.S. government at the time wanted to play down the effects radiation had on health and feared that Weller's story would affect American public opinion and it possibly affected development of a nuclear arms race.
Weller died aged 95 in 2002. His son, Anthony, a writer from Massachusetts, found the stories and pictures last summer in the Rome apartment where his father had lived during the last few years of his life.
The stories had been typed and carbon-copied. The paper on which they had been printed had browned. The stories were typed out on about 75 pages and comprised some 25,000 words. There were also another 25 photos taken of Nagasaki soon after the bombing.
Weller arrived in Nagasaki on Sept. 6, 1945. He had been covering a story in nearby Kagoshima Prefecture, but by riding in a motorboat and catching trains, he made it to the A-bombed city, which was then off-limits to all foreign reporters. Weller used Nagasaki as his base and spent about two weeks covering events in the city and the northern part of Kyushu.
Weller's first story from Nagasaki had a Sept. 6, 1945, dateline. In a story with a dateline two days later, Weller did not seem to realize that the people he saw were being affected by radiation.
"Nobody here in Nagasaki has yet been able to show that the bomb is different than any other, except in a broader extent flash and a more powerful knock-out," Weller wrote.
On the same day, Weller visited two Nagasaki hospitals and realized the symptoms peculiar to radiation poisoning. He wrote of seeing a woman who had initially suffered only a minor burn, yet was now unable to speak and her legs and arms were speckled with tiny red spots.
The reporter for the now defunct Chicago Daily News also saw a girl with the same red spots and a nose clotted with blood, as well as children who had lost their hair. None of these children had initially reported burns or broken limbs. A Dutch doctor Weller met described their condition as "Disease X."
On the following day, a doctor called Yoshisada Nakashima visited Nagasaki from Fukuoka, explaining to Weller that "Disease X" was the effect of radiation and that people would continue to die from the bomb long after it had been dropped.
Weller quoted Nakashima saying that some of the patients he had dealt with in Nagasaki were obviously suffering from radiation poisoning.
"These patients begin with slight burns which make normal progress for two weeks. They differ from simple burns, however, in that the patient has a high fever. Unfevered patients with as much as one-third of the skin area burned have been known to recover. But where fever is present after two weeks, healing of burns suddenly halts and they get worse. They come to resemble septic ulcers. Yet patients are not in great pain, which distinguishes them from any X-ray burns victims," Weller wrote, adding that most of these patients died after no longer than five days.
Weller added: "their organs after death are found in a normal condition of health."
Weller's son said that his father forwarded his stories to the Occupation's General Headquarters, but its censors refused to pass them for publication. The censors never returned Weller's stories and he had believed he had lost the copies.
A story Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett wrote about radiation poisoning in Hiroshima for Britain's Daily Express on Sept. 5, 1945, which probably prompted the U.S. government to ban publication of Weller's stories.
Weller's son said that had his father's stories been printed not long after they were originally filed, they would have been earth-shattering revelations about the dangers of radiation.
Weller won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1943 for a story about an American soldier who performed an emergency appendectomy while in a submarine being attacked. (By Sumire Kunieda, Mainichi)
Follow this link to read Weller's "Nagasaki Report" in full:http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/specials/0506/0617weller.html
If you have any views visit the discussion board.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Radiation leak feared at reactor - National - smh.com.au

Radiation leak feared at reactor - National - smh.com.au: "Radiation leak feared at reactor
October 19, 2005
*

An investigation by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has failed to determine why a maintenance worker at Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor has recorded an unusually high dose of radiation.

However, the organisation's executive director, Ian Smith, said yesterday that a radiation leak was the 'only explanation'.

During a routine monthly health check, the worker's radiation monitoring badge registered a dose of 66 millisieverts, when the maximum dose allowed per year was 50."

Monday, October 17, 2005

Traces of plutonium in eight workers at Dounreay Nuclear Power Plant -BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Fresh safety alert at Dounreay: " Last Updated: Monday, 17 October 2005, 16:08 GMT 17:08 UK

Dounreay Nuclear Power Plant
Eight workers at Dounreay are being monitored
Officials at the Dounreay nuclear complex in Caithness are dealing with the second radioactivity alert in less than three weeks.
A second part of the site has been closed after tests showed traces of plutonium in eight workers.
They had been working in a laboratory which is being decommissioned.
A treatment plant at the nuclear site was closed last month after an escape of dangerous spent fuel, although no-one was harmed by the spill.
The latest fears were triggered when the employees, who are now being monitored, had routine tests after working in the laboratory.

Eight of the tissue samples came back with traces of radioactivity on them
Colin Punler Dounreay spokesman.
It is the second problem to affect work on dismantling the one-time test laboratory in less than a year.
It was shut down last November after a similar alert involving 15 workers.
The unit remained closed until a couple of months ago.
Spokesman Colin Punler said of the new scare: "One of the checks the workers go through is a nose-blow into a tissue.
"Overnight last Thursday, eight of the tissue samples which the workers were asked to provide as a routine precaution came back with traces of radioactivity on them."
Dounreay Monitoring is being carried out after the latest problem
Dounreay, which is run by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, was used as Britain's centre of fast reactor research and development from 1955 until 1994.
Mr Punler added: "The more you take it apart, the greater the hazard becomes. It is proving to be a difficult job and a dirty job."
Last month a treatment plant was closed after an alert involving a batch of hazardous, dissolved spent fuel."

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Nuclear Nightmare revealed in Kazakhstan: the human fallout

July 29/00 - Nuclear Nightmare revealed in Kazakhstan: the human fallout.
BBC News
by Sue Lloyd-Roberts
Babies born with deformities
are often abandoned
Kazakhstan -- The Russians chose one of the most desolate parts of their empire to build their nuclear testing base. Scorching in summer and 40 degrees below freezing in winter, it is an inhospitable place.
Nonetheless when the first bomb exploded, there were over a million Kazakhs living here.
More than 100 bombs were detonated above ground, with radioactive fallout spreading over a vast area equivalent, scientists say, to over a hundred Chernobyls.
It was the Cold War and the Russians were eager to catch up with America. Safety was not a priority.
Watching the explosions
Nurgul Skakova, whose child is disabled, said: "We were told there was nothing to worry about. In fact, we were ordered out of school in order to watch the mushroom clouds.
"I was contaminated and that's why my son was born paralysed and mentally sick."
21-year-old Zaneisti is only a metre tall
Nurgula told me that every family in her village, which was 30km from the epicentre of the explosions, has been affected.
To prove her point, she took me next door to see the girl with six toes. Her mother said that her older daughter is in hospital with leukaemia.
In the next house, I was introduced to Zaneisti, who is 21 and stands only a metre tall. Everyone in the village wanted to show me their disfigurements because, they said, they welcomed any outsider who showed any interest.
From the house opposite, a woman called out that she had even worse to show me - Davidya, whose tumours have left him hideous and half blind. One of his sisters recently committed suicide for fear that her unborn child might be affected by the same poisoned genes.
Most of the many suicides in the area have been among young men who discover they are impotent.
Red Cross stretched
People told me they are living in the most polluted place on Earth and are afraid to eat, drink and even breathe the air.
The International Red Cross look after old people who are dying of cancer and whose children have fled the area.
The next generation is also suffering
With a 30 year or so period before radiation exposure develops into certain cancers, more and more people in this age group are affected, and Red Cross workers can barely cope with the demand on their scarce resources.
In the state hospitals, doctors, some of whom have not been paid for six months and who lack modern equipment and drugs, fight to save those with a chance.
But what is puzzling the doctors is the number of babies who continue to be born with deformities.
Unable or simply unwilling to cope with them, parents often abandon these babies in the doors of state orphanages.
Lasting legacy
Without accurate information about how badly the region was contaminated, doctors can only speculate about the long term genetic damage that has been done to its people.
Dr. Boris Gusev from the Institute of Radioactive Medicine says: "Even today, the military in Moscow are lying to us about the tests as they have all along.
"They tell us that 700,000 people might have been affected. I believe it is over 1.5 million.
"The contamination spread over thousands of kilometres. There's nowhere else like this in the world. Japan? Nevada? Forget it! It's equivalent to 1,000 times the impact of the Hiroshima bomb. This is a unique situation and we need help."
The statue of Lenin has been removed from the central square in Semipalatinsk. The Soviet military-industrial complex has withdrawn and the scientific boffins have packed their bags and gone.
But the people will feel the effects of the Soviet era for decades to come.
The Russians say they have too many of their own problems to help their former colony.
At a conference later this year, the Kazakhs will argue that these are victims of the Cold War and it is up to the international community to pay the price of helping.R

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Radioactive Leak Found at SRS WLTX News 19

WLTX News 19 Radioactive Leak Found at SRS: "Radioactive Leak Found at SRS

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COLUMBIA (AP) - Workers have found a small leak in one of the oldest radioactive waste tanks at the Savannah River Site.

Westinghouse Savannah River Company spokesman Dean Campbell says the leak dried up and plugged itself and caused no immediate health or environmental concerns.

Campbell says the leak in the nearly 50-year-old tank at the site near Aiken was found Monday.

The underground tank holds about 191-thousand gallons of sludge from Cold War bomb-making and was scheduled to be emptied next year.

Officials say the tank has leaked three times before.

Mark Hiner, Assignment Editor

Updated: 10/5/2005 9:42:22 PM

Associated Press"

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